An integrated circuit (“IC”) die may be assembled into an IC package. One or more IC packages may be physically and electrically coupled to another packaging element, such as a printed circuit board (“PCB”) and/or a heat spreader to form an “electronic assembly”. The “electronic assembly” may be part of an “electronic system”. An “electronic system” is broadly defined herein as any product comprising an “electronic assembly”. Examples of electronic systems include computers (e.g., server, router, desktop, laptop, hand-held, Web appliance, etc.), wireless communications devices (e.g., cellular phone, cordless phone, pager, computer with wireless network, etc.), computer-related peripherals (e.g., printer, scanner, monitor, wireless network card, etc.), entertainment devices (e.g., television, radio, stereo, tape and compact disc players, video cassette recorder, camcorder, digital camera, MP3 (Motion Picture Experts Group, Audio Layer 3) player, etc.), and the like.
In the field of electronic systems there is competitive pressure among manufacturers to drive the performance of their equipment up while driving down production costs. This is particularly true regarding the packaging of IC's, where each new generation of packaging may provide increased performance, particularly in terms of an increased number of components and higher clock frequencies, while generally being smaller or more compact in size. As the internal circuitry of IC's, such as processors, operates at higher and higher clock frequencies, and as IC's operate at higher and higher power levels, the amount of heat generated by such IC's may increase their operating temperature to unacceptable levels. However, the performance and reliability of IC's may diminish as the temperature to which they are subjected increases, so it becomes increasingly important to adequately dissipate heat from IC environments, including IC packages.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a significant need in the art for apparatus and methods for packaging an IC that minimize heat dissipation problems associated with high clock frequencies and high power densities.